Fur, Leather, Wool, and Wearing Animals

Ga-Maleven

In today’s society we have access to all kinds of clothing, furniture, accessories, and toys. While many are made from plastic and other man-made materials, some are still covered in fur, skin, feathers, and wool from animals. The need for wearing fur has long since passed now since coats and modern technology is able to keep us warm without the real stuff, and with the environmental issues, it’s better for the planet to avoid actual animal products.

Fur for coats, toys, scarfs, and other fashion accessories comes from an array of species from wolves, foxes, mink, seals, domesticated dogs, domesticated cats, raccoon dogs, bobcats, coyotes, beavers, muskrats, tigers, lions, bears, chinchillas, and many other animals. These animals are either caught from the wild or raised on fur farms.

Trapping is the primary method used to catch wild animals for fur since it does the least damage to the fur/hide, but that doesn’t mean it’s human. Traps will snarl around an animal’s leg, cutting off blood flow and if not removed soon enough kills the limb. Clamps are also used that snap down on the paws, keeping the animal detained. In panic, the animals will pull and try to escape to no avail. In desperation, some will even chew off their own limb in order to get out. A tactic even humans pull off to survive. Some traps are placed underwater so scavenging beavers will get caught and drown a slow, terrifying death.

While the animals remain trapped, from hours to up to weeks depending on how often the trappers check their traps, they are victims to the elements, predators, and infection from their wound. Some die from thirst, some bleed to death, and some face meeting the trapper. Once the animal is found alive, they are often shot in the head, which isn’t always a quick death. Many times the animals are teased, chased and yelled at by their captures. Dogs are allowed to tear at them if they are not desired, and beating to death is also commonplace. These traps don’t always capture the target animal, most of the time catching deer, pets, elephants, and other animals. Trapping, just like hunting, doesn’t help with population control either and only causes more harm than good.

Fur farms are not a better option. Animals are forcibly impregnated constantly through artificial insemination (rape) and kept in small cages without a floor. They urinate and defecate on themselves, and without stimuli, a change of scene, or space to move they go insane. Their insanity can be as bad or worse than what zoo animals suffer through.

When these animals are killed they are either clubbed to death, slammed to the ground to break their skulls, stomped on, or anally electrocuted. How they electrocute them is by placing a metal rod into the animal’s anus or vagina, while another is placed in the mouth. This electrocutes them, which doesn’t always guarantee an instant or pain free death. The animals are then skinned, most of the time alive since “the live animal’s flesh is warm and it makes it easier to remove.” As one Chinese fur farm worker explained to an investigator. Their skinless bodies are thrown into piles, sometimes still alive. They will either be sold as meat, compose, or simply thrown away.

The animals skinned alive are from rabbits, chinchillas, dogs, cats, wolves, snakes, and cows. Any animal having their skin taken from them can and often is skinned alive. Even cases of sickos skinning their pets alive are sadly not uncommon.

Animals who are skinned for fur also have their hides taken for leather. Some animals, such as bovines, are usually skinned just for the use of leather since their fur is coarse. While bovines, pigs, and many animals are killed for their flesh to be eaten, and often are even alive for being skinned, many bovines are killed just for their skin being used for leather. In India, bovines are seen as sacred by Hindus, but sadly not everyone is able to fix their cows and prevent them from excessively breeding. These excess animals that the Hindus can’t care for are often bought by people claiming they would give them a new, safe home. Sadly, the bovines are instead forced to walk a long distance to their deaths. They aren’t allowed to rest, so have peppers forced into their eyes to keep them moving. As with the animals killed for “food,” they are cruelly slaughtered, bleeding to death from their slit throats.

Wool comes from sheep. While the act of removing excess wool doesn’t harm the animals, the wool industry has taken it to an entirely new level of extreme. Sheep naturally don’t have much wool, just enough to keep them warm and safe. But due to selective breeding they now grow so much that it can cause them to overheat or even be able to have difficulty walking. The wool industry artificially inseminates sheep to keep them breeding. Males have their testicles cut or ripped off without anesthesia to keep them from breeding with the wrong females in an effort to control the selective breeding.

Sheep are sheared at such a fast paced due to the need to get as much off as quickly as possible. This causes sheep to be cut, and even killed from the harsh shearing. Sheep are often beaten, kicked, punched, shouted at, and locked away in small pens. When sheep are not producing enough wool, get too old, or ill they are sent to slaughter where they painfully die like every other animal sent to slaughterhouses.

Down, the soft feathers on a bird used for warmth, is usually taken from ducks, chickens, geese, and turkeys. Down is often removed from birds killed for flesh consumption, but many birds are raised solely for their feathers. These birds have their down plucked off them while still alive which hurts tremendously. Think of your hair being ripped off your stomach, but the roots art even thicker and deeper. These birds go through immense abuse whether from the meat industry, foi gras, or the sole purpose of simply having their down taken.

Seals, primary the harp seal, are brutally clubbed to death in Canada. Metal poles, large wooden clubs, and even boots are used to beat these animals to death so their pelts can be taken. Harp seals, especially the babies who have thick, soft, white fur, are prized to use for coats and other items. The ice becomes covered in their blood, leaving only death behind once the clubbers have killed and skinned them.

Reptiles, such as crocodiles, alligators, and pythons, are also farmed, hunted down, and killed for their hides. Pythons will have nails hammered into their heads so they can be skinned alive as they hang from trees.

Silk causes the silk worms to die when they are harvested since their cocoons are destroyed. They are usually boiled alive.

The use of animals for clothing is no longer necessary or fashionable. With modern technology it is harder than ever to tell real from faux products. If we can make something look and feel real, why continue to use the real stuff that only causes suffering and death? Leather is now being made from pineapples, tea leaves, and even mushrooms. Faux fur is created from plastic and plant fibers. It is so difficult to tell the real from the fake that several tests have to be done just to determine the real thing. In some cases, labs are the most reliable resources of testing.

Many cities and even countries are now beginning to ban fur and leather due to it’s cruelty and simply being outdated. The need for this abuse to end is crucial to end horrific cruelty. Why continue to support something when it is no longer necessary, and simply not fashionable.

Here are listed on companies that do not use fur: Human Society’s list, PETA’s list, Our Compass’ list.

And here are some links on leather free alternatives: PETA’s list, Vegetarian Resource Group’s list, The Telegraph’s list.